Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, by
Marjane Strapi, Pantheon, 187 pages.

What’s more difficult than life in the
oppressive regime of fundamentalist Islamic Iran?

Being a teenage girl. Marjane Strapi
witnesses the Islamic Revolution of her country in her first book, Persepolis:
The Story of a Childhood. In this book, she escapes to Vienna and the promise of
a liberal education out from under the veil. But, while she encounters a variety
of prejudices and incredible torment over the dueling desires to both go home
and keep her freedom, her deepest moments of angst come from very universal,
very teenage senses of loneliness, rebellion, self-consciousness and a deep
desire to be loved.

The book begins with a 14-year-old Marjane
arriving in Vienna to begin schooling. Her problems are unique (she speaks no
German, public sentiment is very much against Iran, Austria is seeing a rise of
xenophobia) and common (she has a tough time fitting in). A dark-featured girl
in a northern European country, Marjane agonizes over the war in her homeland
but also, and with equal fervor, she agonizes over her appearance and her
ability to find and keep a boyfriend.

And then, about 60 percent of the way
through the book, this budding European intellectual returns to her parents in
Iran. After growing up in a very recognizable society of relative openness and a
lax attitude towards premarital sex, Marjane chafes against the strict
separations between men and women. She finds herself in love but also in
something of a bind — unable to go out with her beau. The only real way for an
Iranian couple to get to know each other is get married. Marjane eventually
does, an act which creates a whole new set of problems and turmoil for her.

Oh, and I probably should mention that all
of this happens in comic panels a little smaller than wallet-sized photos.

Much like Art Spiegelman’s excellent Maus,
Persepolis 2 captures the personal and the political brilliantly. Relatively
simple drawings convey emotion with laser precision. We watch Marjane grow up
and her appearance change as well as her surroundings. With all the depth of a
traditional biography, Persepolis tells Strapi’s story with a cinematic ability
to let us “see” the scenes unfold.

Engaging and thought-provoking as a window
on a turbulent political environment, Persepolis 2 really soars when it tells
the author’s own story of budding adulthood.